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White House Chief of Staff John Kelly pauses to look to a video monitor as he appears on Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) ** FILE ** more >

Mr. Kelly has come under intense scrutiny for allowing Mr. Porter to work in the White House with interim security clearance despite the alleged spousal abuse being uncovered by the FBI background check.

The chief of staff admitted the episode was mishandled, with mixed messages from himself and other officials during 24 hours of confusion before it was announced that Mr. Porter had resigned as White House staff secretary.

“We didn’t cover ourselves in glory in terms of how we handled that,” he said. “It was confusing.”

Mr. Kelly presented his own timeline of events that occurred behind the scenes before Mr. Porter’s resignation.

He stressed that he didn’t know about the spousal abuse allegations from Mr. Porter’s two ex-wives until Feb. 6.

Mr. Porter’s resignation was announced Feb. 7, though Mr. Kelly said he received the resignation a day earlier.

Mr. Kelly said he was first told of “red flags” on Mr. Porter’s security clearance background on Feb. 6.